An annotated list of some of Kate Arnold’s influences, with multimedia and other links to help schmoes like me
This post is part of Dead Anyway month at turn & work. All of the posts are collected here.
This is an extra-special post, provided by the author herself, Kate Arnold, about writing that’s been influential for her. I’ve included recordings or articles about the pieces where I can find them.
As I said in the post about the book, I’ve never been a poetry reader. The only writer I’d read from the below list was Sylvia Plath. The research to find out about these pieces has been enlightening and fairly emotional. There’s a lot of gold below, and I’m eternally grateful to Kate for sharing this list. I guess I’m a poetry reader now.
Poetry 1900 to 1975 ed. George MacBeth
(Longman 1979)
This was my A level English textbook, and where poetry started for me. My first introduction to Auden, Larkin, TS Eliot, Graves, Stevie Smith, Betjeman, MacNeice, Plath and Hughes; I just couldn’t get enough. Late for the first lesson when the copies were given out, I got the last copy, which was the extended edition. Result.
Collected Poems, Sylvia Plath
(Faber 1981)
I couldn’t choose just one. Her rhythms, her atmospheres and her doom have been a massive influence on me. I don’t know what else to tell you. Just read them. I can’t bear to think of what she could have been had she hung on for just a decade or two.
Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes
(Faber 1998)
Two sides to every story. Hughes kept his counsel until just before his death, and this is his broken-hearted—and only—response to hers. If you only read one, make it ‘Daffodils’.
(note: I knew nothing about Ted Hughes before this. Here’s a very insightful analysis of the poem, -hugh)
The Mersey Sound, Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten
(Penguin 1983)
Taught me the impact of hiding poignancy behind a jaunty rhythm and/or rhyme.
Selected Poems, Carol Ann Duffy
(Penguin 1994)
Short sentences. Repetition. Use of the second person. All things I’ve nicked. A dude, and my favourite Laureate.
Sentenced to Life, Clive James
(Picador 2015)
Not immediately known for his poetry, but Clive James had (like Larkin and Auden) a skill with undetectable rhyme that I’ve constantly envied and tried to ape. A sad, dignified collection.
(Note: here’s an excellent piece on it – hugh)
Hold Your Own, Kae Tempest
(2014)
Marc decided to ask me to work with him having seen Kae Tempest at Glastonbury, but I’d never been able to get past the delivery. Listening to a podcast recently where they spoke to Scroobius Pip about the difference between the stage and the page, I looked at this volume again and I’m beginning to get it. Totally stands up on the page.
The Poet Speaks, (cassette) various
(Argo 1962)
Almost all of the poets I’d studied for A level, reading their stuff. It’s all very starchy, and ‘BBC 1960s’ but such a thrill for this poetry nerd to hear actual voices reading their actual poems after poring over them for so long. I don’t have a cassette player anymore and I’m not even sure if the tapes work, but I don’t care – I’ll never get rid of it.
Have something to share?
Something you wrote or made? Something you just think more people should see?
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